A friend of mine swears by Aperture 3. If I can combine the RAW conversion and lens profile corrections from DxO 8 with Aperture 3, I will consider going that route, but I have a few questions?

1) How hard is it to export the converted files from DxO 8 to Aperture 3?

I always start with Aperture. I import and organize my images in projects. I then rate them and the ones I deem worthy some more work (Processing in DxO) I then export outside Aperture. Export the Originals as these are the raw files you want to work on.

I then start DxO and starts working on the images in that folder outside Aperture. I've setup DxO to put the processed image in the same folder and add a suffix (_dxo) to the file name.

When DxO is done I just bring up Aperture and select the Project where I still have the images and then I just select the processed dxo images (not the originals, just the jpg, tiffs or whatever you have DxO generate) and just drag and drop them on the Aperture project. I then sort by filename and stack the original and the dxo processed version. I then delete all images from the folder outside Aperture. Just leaving the .dop files that DxO leaves behind as they contain the settings used to process the images.

2) Will this combination still work with the Nik Software Suite Bundle?

Sure, you can work with the NIK tools later on on either the original or on the processed DxO images.

-- hide signature --

Mikael

I really appreciate the feedback on all these products. I have decided to get Aperture 3, as it is fairly low cost and was designed for the Mac OS X system. I will use it with DxO Optics Pro 7, as it is on at a ddiscount. I have played with this a bit, so know it will meet my needs.

Later, I will probably get the latest Nik Software bundle. For now, i will learn to work with Aperture 3 and DxO and create good workflow habits.